Category: robin williams

I saw this on a blog today:

“What happens when celebrities lose their way, and think death is the only answer to their problems? Moreover, what happens when celebrities are no longer in the limelight; and the roar of the crowd, has been reduced to a handful of curiosity seekers? Do they grow old and fade away? Do they try to revive their careers? Or do they follow in the footsteps of the late great Robin Williams, and commit suicide? What do you think?”

 

First off, this person is a complete fucking moron.

Secondly, Williams has a film coming out shortly, so he’s still in the limelight.

Third: I’m pretty sure he didn’t kill himself out of depression or pity. Robin Williams had Bipolar Disorder.

Fourth: if others follow simply because Williams did it, they’re even more stupid than the woman who posted this is. And that’s a whole lot of stupid.

I think judging this as an outsider is something you can’t really do accurately. I have bipolar disorder. Unless you have it, you have NO IDEA what it’s like to live with it. This disorder has the highest death rate of any disorder…even a higher death rate than cancer. There is a reason for that. Sometimes people don’t kill themselves because they want to die. It’s because they just can’t live with it any longer. 
When you have a disease, it stays with you, no matter what. Nothing changes that. Not where you move, what your career is, who your partner is. It’s always with you. And bipolar disorder is much, much more than just mood swings. It physically affects you, especially the respiratory system. 
Unfortunately, with the ridiculous stigmas in the USA and lack of affordable healthcare, people either are afraid to talk about it or won’t come forward to get help and the proper medication…medication which is BRUTALLY expensive and usually not covered by insurance. 
There’s also a real lack of awareness about BP here, too. We would not tolerate that with Autism, yet we sweep this under the rug, despite so many having the disorder and it being a genetic disease that was declared a legal handicap in 2008. 

Most people who are successful at suicide with bipolar disorder do not do it during the depression phase. It’s when they’re manic or coming down from a manic episode.

As someone who is in the entertainment industry, I can tell you with a solid amount of certainty that Robin Williams was not eaten up by Hollywood, as someone suggested. He simply got tired of battling something that will never go away.

At the end of the day, Williams lived a very interesting, colorful life. And he got to choose when he wanted to check out.

That’s more than most people will ever get.